I read the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by mark haddon last week. It was good, and quite interesting. It was also a quick read. Basically about a 15 year old autistic boy, struggling with life in general, his parents separation in particular. And, of course, solving the mystery of who killed his neighbor's dog.
Good book.
I just finished reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I really enjoyed it and I hate to say this, but reading it kept making me think of when I was reading A Million Pieces by James Frey. I kept wondering if all of this was really true...these poor kids lived through such neglect and poverty.
The book is a memoir of a young girl growing up in an incredibly dysfunctional family. Being the therapist that I am, I couldn't help but continue to diagonose the characters, especially the parents, through-out the book. Sad thing is, I have had many clients who have lived these kind of lives. As the book shows, people are very resilient.
There were three girls and one boy in the family. Lori was the oldest, followed by Jeannette, then Brian, then Maureen. Jeanette was always her dad's favorite, primarily because she would always agree with him and go along with whatever he was saying or doing.
The book begins with Jeannette's earliest memory...of being on fire. She was three years old, boiling hot dogs on the stove for herself, while her mother was in the other room singing, working on one of her paintings. Jeannette spent six weeks in the hospital, having skin grafts, etc. and after six weeks, her father decided that she was ready to leave and took her home.
"A few days after Mom and Dad brought me home, I cooked myself some hot dogs, I was hungry, Mom was at work on a painting, and no one else was there to fix them for me.
'Good for you,' Mom said when she saw me cooking. 'You've got to get right back in the saddle. You can't live in fear of something as basic as fire.'"
And that was just the beginning...
Very interesting book and another quick read. I recommend it.
2 comments:
I remember reading this book while riding on a bus from the airport. At one point, I exclaimed "Oh my God!" at something Jeannette's parents were or weren't doing. Every head in the bus swiveled around to look at me.
I also enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It was fascinating to view the world from Christopher's point of view- very different from my own.
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